SNE news

A new Governing Board of the Spanish Nuclear Society (SNE) was elected at the recent General Assembly of the society’s members. The incoming President, José Emeterio Gutiérrez Elso, assisted by his Board members, as well as by Lola Morales Dorado (Vice President) and José Luis Elviro Peña (General Secretary), will have as his mission to develop the SNE’s structure and implement the activity changes that were recently elaborated in the SNE Strategic Plan.

The SNE held its Annual Meeting, entitled Operating Experiences of the Spanish Nuclear Power Plants in 2008 on 25 February 2009. Representatives of electricity generating companies, their suppliers and nuclear power plants presented important data highlighting operating issues last year. A special session was devoted to an analysis of the influencing factors that are the key to determining the future development of projects within the nuclear sector. In this occasion, an analysis was made of the economic factors that influence the development of new nuclear projects within the present economical situation.

Nuclear España, SNE’s magazine will publish in April its Special Annual Issue, which will feature the experiences and performance figures of all Spanish NPPs in 2008. This bilingual (Spanish-English) issue also features production figures and a report on the main activities carried out during 2008.

The European Nuclear Young Generation Forum (enygf09) will take place in Córdoba, in the South of Spain, from 19 - 23 May 2009. This Forum will gather together nuclear science and technology young professionals and students from all over Europe. The main aims of the Forum are to train and to encourage new leaders for the European nuclear sector and to create a platform for career development and networking among the young people.

The Spanish association Jóvenes Nucleares is organising the event in collaboration with the European Nuclear Society (ENS) and the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). The conference’s technical programme combines discussion of real issues relevant to nuclear energy development with technical visits to reference centers and debates at which all delegates can participate. There is also a cultural programme to enable participants to enjoy the history and beauty of Cordoba. For more information go to: www.enygf09.org

The European Nuclear Conference (ENC 2010) will take place in Barcelona from 30 May – 3 June 2010. It will be a unique networking event for scientists, nuclear industry representatives and policy- makers, who will have the chance to discuss the ideas and innovations that will drive the technological developments of tomorrow.

The European Nuclear Conference is known for the high standard of papers presented. Key themes at ENC 2010 will include state-of-the-art research and development in areas such as new reactor technologies; socio-economic, political and ethical considerations; education and training and medical applications.

SNE is collaborating actively in the organisation of this event and will contribute its considerable experience of organising its Annual Meeting. 

The 35th Annual Meeting of the SNE will be held in Seville from 28 - 30 of October of 2009. The Technical Committee has launched its call for papers, which will close 30 April. The final papers must be submitted prior to 15 July. Special mentions will be given at the closing session to selected papers that will receive a diploma. Thematic areas, rules for presentation and other information can be obtained from the dedicated web site at: www.sne.org

Three new issues of Nuclear España, were published during last quarter: The Spanish Nuclear Industry over the World, Electric Energy in Spain and The Uranium Market. They include articles about the issue’s front page topic, as well as interviews of important personalities and news about the nuclear sector. The January issue The Spanish Nuclear Industry over the World also includes an English translation of the articles and the interview.

The Nuclear España Best Article Prize has been awarded this year to a paper entitled Gestión de vida útil de activos nucleares (Lifetime management of nuclear waste), René A. Fernández, from Nuclenor. Two runner-up prizes were awarded for the following papers: Investigación sobre fenómenos difusivos en combustible (Investigation into various fuel phenomena), written by Luis Enrique Herranz, María Teresa del Barrio, Francisco Feria and Isabel Vallejo, from Ciemat, and El gran acelerador de hadrones (LHC) y la búsqueda de la partícula divina (The Large Hadron Collider and the Search for the Holy Particle), by Guillermo Sánchez, from Enusa.

The Commission also awarded, as was the case the previous year, an “Honorific Mention” to the magazine for its “distinguished technical quality and presentation.” This award was attributed jointly to the two issues: Nuclear Security and Dismantling Spanish Experience.